zombie84 said:
Trooperman: You may be in luck, most 35mm prints of TOD are very "used" looking if you know what I mean. A digital presentation may come from a studio master, and in almost all cases are better than vintage prints. Although I know it's cool just to say you've seen a certain film on film...
I would love to see the new restored prints of ROTLA. I've seen the film on 35mm a few times, but all prints are going pink and the ones I've watched have some rough spots in them too.
Basically, imagine the supersaturated look of the first teaser trailer of Raiders lasting for the entire film, and you begin to get the idea of what the restoration looks like. It is insanely bright, except for the opening in the jungle, and even then the sky is so bright that the while lettering of the opening titles blends in the with the sky. Sharpness is also insanely high, seeming possibly tweaked along with the contrast levels.
I saw it in 35mm and other than a few very awkwardly placed reel changes, it seemed fine-though not exactly like the film was shot to my eyes. I also noticed some faint lines that seemed to be attempts to digitally erase damage done to the negative during the Tanis dig sequences.
I'm thinking that some of this stuff I was noticing may be seeing slightly past the 4K workflow due to being printed to 35. The print was brand new and it was all source artifacts and not print damage.
georgec said:
I know I read a review somewhere about an HD showing of the trilogy earlier this year. Someone perhaps at AICN reported the movies were intact (truck going off cliff reverted to original shot in Raiders). The only change was the snake reflection was still scrubbed out, and that's such a small change (probably for the better).
The snake reflection is indeed still gone, just as the rod removed for the boulder has been confirmed as gone. (I always miss spotting it though.) Makes me wonder why they copied these moves done at the time of the Lowry DVD cleanup for a supposed archival restoration.
Audio is the same 5.1 mix, which doesn't seem to have had any changes made. I think the audio I heard was run in Dolby Digital right off the print, and it was completely underwhelming. Think like you have the DVD turned way down so that the surrounds are hardly ever on. The Blu audio will likely be a DTS-HDMA version of the same track.
Silver, I am not surprised on the vintage docs not being included. They reveal too much truths and are typically too honest. Plus no one like to take 5 minutes and go through the vaults properly. ;)